FOLLOWERSHIP John 10:1-5 Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me Follower (noun): 1. a person or thing that follows. 2. a person who follows another in regard to his or her ideas or belief; disciple or adherent. 3. a person who imitates, copies, or takes as a model or ideal 4. an attendant, servant, or retainer. 5. a person who follows or subscribes to another's posts on a social media website. 6. Machinery. a part receiving motion from or following the movements of another part -ship (suffix): 1. indicating state or condition: fellowship 2. indicating rank, office, or position: lordship 3. indicating craft or skill: horsemanship, workmanship, scholarship Followership: Indicating the state or condition; the rank and position; and the craft or skills of a disciple, an imitator, a servant who follows the movements of Another. Not too long ago, the Lord gave me this phrase and invited me to press in for more. He said, Great leadership begins with great followership. A. WHO YOU CHOOSE TO FOLLOW MATTERS 1. Joshua 24:14-24 Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God. Then Joshua said to the people, You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you. The people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses. The people said to Joshua, We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice.
2. So then, we have a choice don t we? To follow or not. Joshua said it well, Choose you this day, whom you will serve 3. Make no mistake, you re serving someone. And it s your choice who, because God made us to follow, but He also made followership voluntary. a. He s not a dictator. He lets us choose who we follow. He lets us choose who we serve. And b. He s so very kind to make it clear to us that who we choose to follow, matters. B. HOW WE CHOOSE TO FOLLOW MATTERS 1. Deuteronomy 13:4 You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. 2. This verse gives us some good insight into what followership looks like when it s happening: a. Good followers keep the leader s commands i. Luke 7:2-9 just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, Go! and he goes, and to another, Come! and he comes, and to my slave, Do this! and he does it. ii. John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father s commandments and abide in His love. b. Good followers listen to the leader s voice i. John 10:1-5 Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. ii. John 10: 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; iii. There s intimacy between the leader and they follower they know each other iv. The word in the Greek here, for follow is akoloutheo (G190). It s literal meaning is to follow one who proceeds, but according to Strong s, it can also mean to follow as a disciple (that is to say a student, a learner, one who follows another s teachings). c. Good followers serve the leader i. Joshua 24:14 Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth
ii. John 5:19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever [e] the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. iii. Matthew 26:42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done. iv. Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. d. Good followers cling to the leader i. Felt like the picture the Lord gave here of clinging was one of loyalty and abiding. ii. This is the same word that is used concerning marriage, that a man would leave his father and mother and be joined (cling to, be glued upon) his wife and they would become one flesh (Gen. 2:24). 3. Some additional thoughts on Good Followership: e. Good followship follows fully and requires faith. i. Numbers 14:24 But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it. ii. Joshua 22:5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 1. The Hebrew word for walk in that Joshua 22:5 is also translated as follow in other verses. And the Lord s really been highlighting for me that our walk is tied to the quality of our followership. iii. Numbers 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following (or pursuing) the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you. 1. Last week during ministry time I was pretty much undone by the prophetic choruses that Mary Lou and Maggie. The first was, I won t pull back from what You re doing. I won t pull back from what You re saying, I say yes to You good Shepherd. I say yes to You good Father. The second was, Where you go, I ll go. Where you stay, I ll stay. I say yes to You Father. 2. Look back at Numbers 14:43, the 10 men who spied out the promised land and gave a bad report, and all those who followed them, as opposed to believing the word of the Lord, had turned back. They had pulled back from following the Lord.
3. But Caleb and Joshua followed fully and by faith, they took hold of what their counterparts had failed to grasp. By faith, they understood that when God calls, when He gives direction, when He rebukes and reproves, He s looking for a yes in our hearts. 4. Good followership requires a good measure of faith. f. There are going to be challenges to good followership. i. Fear. How many of you have heard a conversation like this at work, or worse yet, participated in it? 1. You know, this is the third manager we ve had in as many years. I don t know what the leadership team was thinking, but we ll never get anywhere without some consistency around here I know this I m not going to invest in this guy, when we all know he ll be gone in a year. Besides, you and I know what s best for our business and if we loop him in it ll just muddy the water. And the reply comes back, I know right, he s so new to the industry he couldn t possibly be equipped to lead us out of this hole the last guy dug. 2. Could you hear the fear in that conversation? ii. Considering equality with the leader something to be grasped. 1. When I see myself as equal to the leader, then I begin to usurp the leader s authority. a. For us this started in Gen. 3:1-0 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden? The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. b. Have you ever watched children play Simon says or Mother may I or Follow the Leader? What happens every time, without fail? It doesn t take long before someone shouts it out, I get to be Simon next!! or I get to be the Leader after you or some version thereof c. Which begs the question: what s the single fastest way to become the leader in those games? And the answer: Be the best at following! It s so simple and yet there it is, hidden in the games we play with our kids, if you want a shot at being the leader you must first be an excellent follower. Be the last one
standing in Simon says. Be the first one to reach Mother, in Mother may I and well, you get the point. d. But so often I forget that point Just put me in charge already, and I ll make everything better! g. And then His Spirit gently reminds me with all the love of the Father s heart, that good followership requires humility. i. Philippians 2:3-7 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. h. When followers demonstrate poor followership it places an unnecessary burden on the leader. i. Numbers 14:27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. i. Good followers are open to receive instruction and correction. i. Some of you may remember this quote, You know what your problem is? You re not coachable! ii. Has some bite to it, doesn t it? But it came from a good friend. 1. Proverbs 27:6 The wounds of a friend can be trusted, but the enemy multiplies kisses. 2. Proverbs 28:23 He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue. iii. Good followers receive instruction. 1. Proverbs 2:1-5 My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. 2. Proverbs 10:17 He is on the path of life who heeds instruction, but he who ignores reproof goes astray. 3. Psalm 81:8 Hear, O My people, and I will admonish (bear witness against) you; O Israel, if you would listen to Me! 4. Ecclesiastes 7:5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools.
5. 1 Corinthians 4:14-16 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish (to caution or reprove gently, to warn) you as my beloved children for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore, I exhort you, be imitators of me. j. Good followers fix their gaze on the leader to stay in alignment i. If I want to be focused on the things that you re focused on, I have to focus on you to see where your gaze is set. 1. Hebrews 12:1-2 (paraphrased) If we want to run the race well, we have to fix our eyes on Jesus ii. Example: a complex cam and it s followers in a music box iii. When the body follows the head, we re in alignment. When it doesn t, we are out of alignment. So helps to know, who is the head? Jesus Christ! 1. Ephesians 1:22-23 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. iv. Chris Craft who spoke a couple of Thursdays ago said it like this, If we follow God, if we truly follow Him, then everything we do is an act of God a move of God. 1. Matthew 6:9-10 Pray then, in this way: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. 2. 1 John 2:3-6 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says I have come to know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. a. The word walk in vs. 6 is peripateo (G4043) and while it s translated walk, figuratively it can mean to follow as a companion. b. Which makes sense because Jesus walked, that is to say He followed the Father as a companion. Abide in me as I abide in the Father. k. Good Followership has it s rewards i. Because Jesus was a great follower, He has now been given Leadership of The Church. And by the way, He s a great leader! 1. Philippians 2:8-11 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ii. And the Father also rewards those who exhibit good followership towards His Son 1. Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 2. Luke 12:35-37 Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. 4. Bonus Followership Homework: Study David and watch how he honors the Lord s anointed even when the Lord delivers Saul into his hands in 1 Samuel 24, 25 & 26 Look at 1 Peter 2:13-20 and ask the Lord to uncover any area where you ve failed to submit to leadership. 5. Followership Prayer: Psalm 25:4-5 Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day. Followership is a choice. Choose wisely.